On the writing and reading papers time is your enemy. Sometimes it can seem fairly straightforward to complete an IELTS essay in 40 minutes, but can you do it under exam circumstances when you have just spent 60 minutes doing three readings?
A common mistake – do everything timed
Perhaps the obvious thing to do is to do all your writing and reading timed. I disagree. In fact, I think it’s a big mistake. If you practise that way, you may finish the paper, but I rather doubt you will improve your writing. What is much more likely to happen is that you will repeat all the same mistakes.
How to practise – learn the skills first
My advice is different. Accept that it takes time and practice to improve your reading and writing skills. Concentrate first on learning the skills – do not worry over much about time. Start doing your essay in 60 minutes (for example) and as you get nearer the exam, do it 2/3 minutes more quickly each time. When you can write a good essay in 40 minutes, then you know you are ready.
Thank you. I was thinking of exactly doing this but I was afraid I might become too comfortable of doing 1 hour each essay. You are right, I make the same mistakes and I don’t seem to get an essay done. I am going to try this. Thank you very much!
Thank you for your comment. This is one of my oldest posts but actually I think a super important one.
It’s very easy to think that the main problem in IELTS – particularly the reading- is time. Actually it isn’t. The problem is whether you have the correct language skills or not.
Something I didn’t say in this post – which I’ll try and revise soon – is that it’s a really good idea to make yourself a programme. By this I mean you keep track of what exercises you have done, how you scored, how long you took to do them and whether you revised them. The benefit of this is that it puts you in control of the learning process.
Solid advice there, I think I’ll try it in my classes.
Cheers!
Hope it works! Don’t blame me if it doesn’t.
Hello Dominic, just wanna say Thank you so much for everything.
Hello Dominic, Thank you so much for your help.
Happy new year !! You are the best
Carlo